“Don’t you tell me to calm down! You said you loved me. I trusted you enough to tell you the worst thing about me. I told you who I was, what I am, and you rejected it. I loved you, and you didn’t love me enough in return. It’s fine if you can’t accept me, but why come here when I’ve finally begun to accept it? Why come here and just break my heart with your presence? I just want you to get out of my inn and never come back!” he shouted, taking a menacing step toward her.
Tio knew he would never harm her, but he wanted her to be frightened so that she would leave. He wanted her to leave him here and never look back. There was only so much pain a man could bear from the woman he loved.
“Or what, Tio? I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving until you calm down and talk to me,” she said, her voice raised slightly from her previously even tone.
“You are not listening. We have nothing to talk about,” he replied, his voice a little calmer, but still seething with anger at her very presence in front of him.
He had not expected to react like this. In his mind, if he ever saw her again, he would want nothing more than to run to her and take her in his arms, kiss away both of their pain. Instead, he found himself only feeling angrier by the moment, perhaps by the knowledge that she was no longer his and he couldn’t do the one thing he wanted most – love her.
“Tio, you are the most stubborn man I’ve ever met in my life! Don’t you understand that I love you? I know I reacted poorly to what you shared with me. I didn’t know how to cope with such a thing. I still don’t, but I know that I made a mistake in letting you leave. You are the only man I’ve ever loved, the only man I ever will love,” she yelled back at him.
Tio didn’t respond. He just stood there looking at her sullenly, trying to quell the anger that still threatened to take over. Damn her, and whatever this power she held over him. He could feel himself drawn toward her, wanting just to hold her, but what she had done was unforgiveable. Then again, a tiny voice inside his head reminded him that what he did to her was just the same.
“Did you hear me, Tio? I love you! I love you more than life itself,” she said, slightly calmer but with a hint of agitation still in her voice.
It was as if some magnetic force suddenly took over Tio’s entire body as he launched himself forward and pulled her into his arms. In that moment, nothing mattered but the fact that she was here with him. His lips came down hard on hers, probing her open mouth with his tongue and igniting the burning embers of his desire for her.
Never taking his mouth from hers, he scooped her up into his powerful arms and carried her to the master bedroom where they tore at each other’s clothes until they were both naked and once again exploring every inch of each other. She was different from the last time they were together. More timid, as if unsure if she was doing the right thing. He knew that it would take time to heal what had happened between them, but he knew they would be okay in the end.
Their lovemaking was animalistic but passionate as their bodies came together in a union that felt so perfect they both wondered how they ever lived apart. They were like matching pieces of a puzzle which had no purpose, but to complete the other’s place in the overall picture of life. His hands locked into hers as he hovered above her, driving his hips forward to fill her with his considerable mass over and over as she lay whimpering with pleasure below him.
“Yes, yes. I love you so much,” she mumbled, so moved by their passion that tears fell from her eyes. Their bodies fit perfectly together as they lost all sense of time and place outside of their need for one another. As their passion reached a crescendo, Maggie’s body was suddenly racked with what felt like a million rockets shooting out in all directions against his flesh. He felt as if she might literally explode from the inside as her body shook violently below him.
Moments later, he was carried away by his own pleasure as he erupted deep within her center in a dizzying climax that made him feel weak in a way he had never experienced before. Everything seemed different now for some reason. The only thing that remained the same for him was the incredible love he felt for Maggie. His affinity for her was so great that he would travel across time and distance just to be with her. He would give up anything and be anything else that she needed him to be just to be by her side. Looking down at her now, he wiped the remaining tears from her face and kissed her softly.
“I love you, Maggie” he told her.
“I love you, too” she responded in a content voice. “I don’t know your name anymore. Is it Tio or is it Advik?” she said, obviously stating only the tip of the many questions she now had for him.
“My name is Advik, but I’ve been Tio for so long now that I’ll have to stick with it. I can’t have that name used when it might get back to my mother. I once wanted to reveal myself to her, but I know now that it would only bring her pain. I’m content to just be Tio,” he told her, brushing the hair from her face as he had always done.
He pulled her up in the bed and leaned back against the pillows with her, looking into her eyes as he spoke. “I did want to lie or deceive you, Maggie. When I left you on the last morning we spoke, I wasn’t sure where I would go or what I would do. It was so hard to leave you behind, and I never stopped missing you. I never stopped loving you. I’ve never been unfaithful. I was just as heartbroken as you were.”
Maggie watched him as he spoke, the pain creasing the small lines now visible in his face. Though it had been only a short time in the broad scheme of things since they had parted, he knew he looked older somehow, as if time had advanced for him. It wasn’t that he looked old, but perhaps weary. He had felt weary without her, no matter how hard he had tried to convince himself otherwise.
“My father was not happy with me leaving to find you. He was disappointed that I couldn’t seem to let you go. I guess he hadn’t counted on the fact that I would be so in love with you that I couldn’t be happy without you,” she said with a little sadness in her voice.
“How did you get here?” he asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
“I asked my father to allow me to join you here, and he initially told me no. He said it would require a greater sacrifice than I was willing to give, but I begged him to give me a chance. He finally agreed to allow me to come here, but he sent escorts to protect me while I was on the road. He doesn’t know why you left, only that we had an argument. You might be surprised at just how much he thinks of you. I don’t think he considered that I would go after you all those times he mentioned that I should try to work things out somehow,” she told him quietly.
Tio smiled for the first time in a while. Then a thought came to him, and the smile faded away as she looked at Maggie’s perfect face and incredible body lying against him again, at last.
“Have you come to stay?” he asked.
“If that is what you want. We can stay here, or we can return to the home we began to prepare for ourselves,” she told him.
“I don’t know. I’ve built a new life here, but I know how you love that house. We will work it out. For now, I’m just glad you are here with me. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have you back in my arms.”
“It is the same for me,” she replied, smiling up at him. Then her smile faded as a question seemed to cross her mind once again. “Tio, you are a tiger, and I am a dragon. You will grow old and die in a matter of years, but I won’t. I will be left here alone for years. You will be an old man, and I won’t be old at all. What will happen to me when you cease to exist?” she asked, the thought of being left here on the Earth for what would feel like an eternity without him seeming to really bother her.
“I can never return home, Maggie,” he told her, but before he could continue, she cut him off.
“Oh, Tio. I have never considered that you have a home somewhere. I know your father is no longer there, but I know you left one behind to come here. I would never want to keep you from being able to return to your own home if that is what you really want to do,” she said.
“I have already given up my other home, Maggie. This place is now where I belong, and by that, I mean here with you. I don’t care if it is this inn or the home by your family. You are my future. You are everything I have ever wished or hoped for, and I can’t imagine my life without you. It is as if the day I laid eyes on you was the beginning of a life that I never knew existed.
“I can’t promise you that we will grow old together and we will die together, but I can tell you that when we are gone from this place, we will exist together in one another. We will never be apart again for any longer than we have to be. This is my promise to you,” he told her. “You know I always keep my promises, and you know that I always will.
Chapter 11
After much discussion, he and Maggie decided to stay where he was and run the inn he had begun. She seemed to thrive there and, as time went on, she appeared to forgive him for his betrayal of her trust. The home by her father became a labor of love, with them sometimes leaving the inn in Lauren or Caitlin’s care, while they returned there to continue its restoration.
“I am certain that you are continuing to maintain my daughter in separate accommodations until such time as you are formally betrothed,” her father said to him over dinner.
“Of course,” Tio replied.
It was mostly true, as she did have her own room at the inn. He only left out the fact that she never slept in it. She retreated to it when he was busy with guests and she wanted to have some peace, but otherwise, it only contained her things, lest her father stop by. In actuality, that was something he was rather fond of doing, and there was little Tio could say about it as he imagined he would be much the same way if he ever had a daughter of his own.
Finally, the day came for their wedding. It was held in the meadow just beyond the house, by her father’s farm, they had worked so hard to finish and attended by people from several villages and towns in the surrounding area. Afterward, they held a grand reception in their new home as people marveled at the fine craftsmanship, that had restored the home to its former beauty.
Things seemed to be looking up for the couple as they began their new life in this place they now called a second home and ran their inn in the village not far away. It had progressed to the point where they now had several clerks who would come in on the weekends and tend the inn while they were at, what became known as, their country estate. Still, though, there was one secret between them. Tio was surprised that Maggie had let it lie, but it was as if she knew he was not ready to answer it and let it be.
“Come on, Maggie. I want to take you somewhere,” he told her one day on their trek from the inn back to their home.
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise,” he told her.
“A good surprise?” she laughed.
“Is there any other kind?” he replied.
“Well, yes, there can be,” she said sadly.
He realized that it hadn’t been so long ago that he had given her just such a surprise, and it still pained him to think about. For a moment, he second guessed his intentions for today’s revelation, but it was time, and he was ready. He decided to go through with it. Rather than giving her a response, he merely squeezed her hand and smiled at her gently.
They made their way into the section of the Mournes between their inn and their home and walked to the center of the village there. The population of the area had grown since he had originally visited it, becoming more of a true village rather than the settlement of a single family. Walking down the pathway lined with small stones as pavement, they made their way inside a nearby establishment.
“Ah, Tio! It’s good to see you, as always,” a woman said as she smiled broadly at him from behind the bar.
“It’s good to see you too, Cassi,” he replied.
“The usual then?” she asked.
“Yes. Make it two. Cassi, I want you to meet my new wife, Maggie,” he told her.
“Oh, my! I had no idea you were getting married,” she replied. “Pints are on the house, in that case,” she laughed. Tio smiled as he turned to Maggie.
“Maggie, this is Cassi. She’s the woman I was telling you I met when I first came here, the one who directed me to your father for a job.”
Understanding dawned on Maggie’s face as she looked closely at Cassi, possibly searching for a resemblance. After a moment, she beamed back at Cassi and thanked her for sending Tio her way.
“Well, obviously, I had no idea, but I am glad that it has worked out so well for the both of you,” she replied. “I’ll get those beers for you in a moment. I need to get clean tankards from the back.”
As she disappeared for a moment, Maggie turned to him, wide eyed. “Oh, my God, Tio! She’s absolutely stunning. Thank you so much for bringing me here. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for you to walk into this place and see your mother for the first time, or how it feels to sit in here and watch her, knowing you can’t reveal your secret to her,” she whispered.
“I’ve gotten used to it. It was different with you, because I felt guilty about not telling you something that affected you so much. With her, though, she knows the secret, just not who I am. So, I don’t feel like I have to tell her. In all honestly, I think that she already knows in some way. Maybe that is just wishful thinking, but I want to believe that she can see something of herself or my father in my eyes.”
“You never know, I suppose. Perhaps, one day, the two of you will be able to sit down and put this all behind you, to tell one another everything you’ve always wanted to say when you might meet again.”
“I hope so. I wonder if that will ever happen. I know my father waited for her to come, hoped she would come, but she never did. I won’t put myself in the position of hoping for something that might not ever happen, but it if does, I will be grateful for the moment.”
They grew quiet as she returned, fresh tankards in her hands, and poured them each a pint of beer. The pub began to fill with people getting off work, and they said their goodbyes until next time, leaving to continue on their journey home. Later that evening, as they sat down to eat their supper, Tio looked at Maggie and knew that he was just as grateful that he had this time with her as he was for what limited visits he had with his mother.
Later, once they had returned to the home by her father, Tio felt a bit overwhelmed with old emotions. There were still things he needed to tell her, and he might as well do so now.
“Maggie, I need you to promise me something,” he said to her.
“What is that, love?” she replied.
“When my time comes and I am no longer of this Earth, even if we have no sons to be harmed and you feel it might be okay to let go of my secret to anyone, please don’t.”
“What? Of course not, Tio. I would never tell anyone your secret.”
“I am speaking specifically of my mother. You may be tempted when it no longer matters for me, to tell her who I really was, and I ask that you don’t.”
“Why, Tio? Don’t you think she has a right to know?”
“Perhaps, but I think it would only bring her more pain, and I don’t want that for her. Just promise me, okay?”
“I promise, Tio,” she replied to him.
“Also, there is a journal that I keep. It is of my private thoughts. You will find it in the trunk below our bed. There is a false bottom in the trunk, and the journal lies hidden there beside one that my father wrote before he passed. Make sure you retrieve them. They are to be passed down to our children. If we have sons, the eldest should receive them, and if we are not blessed with a son, then our oldest daughter.”
“Why?” she asked.
“My father was the last of his kind. There may be other tiger shifters, but I don’t know where they would be found, if they even exist. As far as I know, I am the closest thing to a tiger shifter that remains. I can’t lay claim to being the last of our kind, because I am not. I am the first of a new kind, part dragon and part tiger, though I possess no dragon abilities. I j
ust want to be sure that our ancestors know where they came from and since only the males will be tiger shifters, it is only right that they hold the knowledge.”
“I understand. I promise that they will be handed down and held in the high regard they deserve.”
“Thank you,” he said solemnly.
“Tio, why are you telling me this now? Are you sick? You aren’t dying on me so soon, are you?’ she said with a worried look.
“No. Not as far as I know, my love. My father, though, he died so young. I think it was because he was so heart broken. I don’t think he had the will to fight the illness that befell him and succumbed to the darkness it unfolded upon him. I hope to live much longer, to spend as much life with you and our children as I can possibly manage.”
“That is good to hear,” she replied.
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud knock at the door and shouting from the fields. Tio jumped up and ran to the door to find her father there, bleeding from his side and looking as if he might collapse on the front steps.
“Pillagers! They’ve ransacked the house. They’ve run me through,” he managed, as Tio dragged him inside and bolted the door behind him.
“Come on, Maggie. Let’s get him down to the cellar,” Tio told her urgently.
Maggie looked stricken, frozen in place as she stared at the blood dripping onto the floor beneath her father.
“Maggie!” Tio snapped at her, bringing her around. She helped him move her father down the cellar stairs and into a chair down there before lighting a candle.
“God, father. There is so much blood,” she said, her voice panic stricken.
“Stay here and lock the door,” Tio told her. “Do what you can to stop his bleeding. There are rags and a first aid kit down here. Find them and tend his wounds.”
“Where are you going, Tio?”
“Your mother. I have to go find your mother and help her.”
Seeking The Dragon Page 6
